1 Protein Lesson 4th and 5th Grade Lesson Goal: Introduce proteins, identify their sources, and recognize what they do in our bodies. Objectives: 1. Students will be able to state that proteins are the building blocks of our bodies. 2. Students will be able to identify both animal and plant protein sources. 3. Students will be able to identify heart healthy protein foods versus those that are high in saturated fat. Materials Needed Protein group poster Power Protein poster SAT, TRANS and UN posters Protein foods (Less Heart Healthy-More Heart Healthy)poster Baked chicken vs. fried chicken poster Hamburger meat vs. steak meat poster MyPlate poster or plate Lesson Talking Points Materials/Activities/Notes Review We have been talking about the different nutrients we get from the foods we eat. Use the posters SAT, TRANS and UN posters to review the different Fats. Nutrients, these things we NEED to live and be healthy but our bodies can’t make. What nutrient did we talk about last class? (Fats) Quick review of Fats: o We need them but not too much. We need them to stay warm, protect our organs, make hormones, and store energy. o 3 different types. SAT—need a little, too much bad for heart, found in foods from animals (meats and dairy). TRANS—very bad for heart, found in store bought baked goods and snacks. (Food companies starting to remove from foods so really need to be a nutrition detective to find.) . UN—good for our hearts, found in foods from plants and some fish. Remember the difference of between these fats because it will be important when we talk about today’s Nutrient Superhero, Power Protein. Mind Grabber Before I introduce Power Protein I want everyone to touch your hair. Your hair is made of protein. Touch your fingernails. They feel very different than your hair but are also made July 2013 (KB) www.dineforlife.org Protein Lesson (4th-5th grade) 2 of protein. Touch your skin, pinch a little, pull it up and watch it spring back. Your skin is also made of protein. Make an arm muscle. You can’t feel the muscle directly because it is covered with skin, but it too is made of protein. All these parts of your body, hair, nails, skin and muscle look and feel different but they are all made of protein. EVERYTHING in your body is made of protein! Different kinds of proteins. (accentuate the plural) It is estimated that the human body is made up of over 2 million proteins!! Proteins are the building blocks of our bodies! Discussion Introducing Power Protein Show the Power Protein poster. o How do we get over 2 million different proteins to build our amazingly complex bodies? From the foods we eat, specifically, the foods from the Protein group. These are the foods where we find our Nutrient Superhero, Power Protein. And that is easy to remember because Protein is in the name! Show the Protein Food Group poster Who can name a food from the Protein group? This is the only food group were some and/or picture Protein foods. foods are from an animal and some are from a plant. Let’s look at these foods. Can play a quick round of the Why is Power Protein so powerful? Plant/Animal game There are 4 reasons we need protein, or 4 jobs Power Protein does for our bodies. Use the Reasons to Eat Protein posters. 1. Growth—As I just mentioned, your entire body is built from protein. So to grow your body bigger and stronger your body needs more of the building blocks, proteins to do the job. How does our body take the proteins in a piece of chicken and turn it into the protein that makes more hair on your head or skin on your arm? Can compare the 22 amino acids to the 26 letters in the alphabet if you a. Amino Acids: Well the proteins are made up of a kind of alphabet want to add a deeper understanding called the Amino Acids. When your body digests the protein from the to this concept. “We use 26 letters chicken it breaks it down into a kind of alphabet soup, an amino acid to make up the thousands of different words in the English soup. And then takes those amino acids and puts them back together language, your body takes the 22 to make the protein it needs for skin, hair, nail or muscles. Pretty cool, amino acids to make the millions of proteins to make you.” right? 2. Repair—So if our bodies are built of many different proteins and we get a cut, Use Lego house or Lincoln log house injury or sickness, what does it need to fix itself? More protein (building blocks) to demo Kind of like this Lego house. If part of it breaks, I need more legos to fix it. 3. Satiety (feeling full)-- The third reason why we need to eat protein is because it helps us feel full for a longer period of time. A meal or snack that has protein in it takes longer to leave our stomach because protein takes more time to digest. Therefore, we do not feel hungry for a while. 4. Energy-- Finally, the last reason why protein is so important for us to eat is because it supplies the body with 4 calories for each gram of protein. That means it gives our bodies a little bit of energy, however, supplying energy to the body is NOT one of the main functions of this macronutrient. The main function of protein is supplying amino acids the body can use to build the proteins it needs for growth and repair. If we eat too much protein, our bodies get rid of the extra amino acids -it discards them in urine. However, if we do not get enough protein from the foods we eat to give our bodies the amino acids it needs to build proteins, then the body will break down muscle to get Point out the proportions on them. Notice on MyPlate that the Protein spot is a smaller one? We need MyPlate. some, some ever meal and with snacks would be best but not too much. A plate half full of a juicy steak is TOO much. How to Make Health Chooses from the Protein Group July 2013 (KB) www.dineforlife.org Protein Lesson (4th-5th grade) 3 Not all foods in the protein group are the best or healthiest for our bodies. They may have protein to build a strong body but the nutrient, Fat, is found in many of the Write: Lean = low fat on the board. Protein group foods. We want to choose foods from the Protein group that are lean, or low in fat. That way we are getting the protein we need to grow and keep our body strong or repair it if needed while keeping our heart healthy at the same time. Have you heard the term, “lean meat”? When choosing meats from the Protein group to eat the leaner the meat the healthier. Which meat is lean? It mostly depends on what animal the meat comes from. Let’s take a virtual field trip to a farm. o Close your eyes and imagine you are looking at a cow. Is that cow a big or small animal? (Big) Is that cow running around a lot or standing around a lot? (Standing) Remember how we have fat on our bodies to insulate us from cold? All animals have the same. So a cow that is a large animal that does not move around a lot is going to have a lot more fat on its body. The same with a pig. So the meat we get from the cow (beef) and the pig (pork)is usually high in fat. o Close your eyes again and imagine you are looking at a chicken or a turkey. Is it a large animal or a small animal? (Small) Is it moving a lot or just standing? Chicken and turkeys are constantly looking for little bugs and seeds on the ground that they can eat. They move a lot more than the cow and pig. Therefore, they do not have as much fat on their bodies. So, the meat we get from a chicken or a turkey (and I would add fish) is leaner than the meat we get from a cow or pig. Show poster of hamburger and steak o You can buy leaner cuts of beef and pork. It depends on where the meat comes and talk about the marbling of meat and the leaner packages of from on the animal. Meat from a part of the animal that is used a lot, like the hamburger meat you can choose leg, will have less fat than meat from, say, the underbelly. In general, beef from. NOTE: 95% lean ground beef tenderloin, beef sirloin tip and beef bottom round are lean meat from the cow. broiled 4oz. burger has 8g total fat and 4g saturated fat. Pork loin and pork tenderloin are lean meats from a pig. To help you understand look at this picture of two cuts of beef. Put up the Protein foods poster and Let’s look again at the Protein foods and look at the fat characters, SAT and UN and see the SAT and UN posters. Position if we can tell which Fat brother would be in which food. Notice that the protein foods SAT above the Protein Foods poster on the left (Less Heart Healthy) and go from less heart healthy to more heart healthy.